It's Not a Secret
by pcworth
Summary: Swan Queen Week: Confessions Regina and Emma have been in a relationship but Emma has something she has been hiding from Regina.


**A/N: This is my submission for day one of Swan Queen Week.**

Emma snuggled up against her girlfriend Regina as they laid in Regina's bed post bliss.

"Henry wants to go see the new Ghostbusters movie, what say you and I take him on Friday night," Emma said.

Regina pulled away, giving Emma a confused look. "That's a little public isn't it?"

"So," Emma said. "We're his parents, I don't think it's unusual for parents to go out with their children. Come on, we can go have dinner and everything."

"Oh, you mean out of town, well yes, we can probably arrange something as long as we are careful."

Emma propped her head up on her hand. "No I wasn't talking about out of town. There is no reason we shouldn't stay here in town."

"No reason?" Regina said. "How about the fact you and I have been sleeping together and we're trying to keep that a secret?"

"We are more than sleeping together. We are dating," Emma said. "When people date, they go on dates."

"People who aren't trying to keep their relationship a secret do those things. We don't."

"Then maybe it's time to discuss taking our relationship out of the realm of secret."

This time Regina sat up. "What's bringing this on all of a sudden?"

"It's not all of a sudden. We've been dating for seven months," Emma said. "Yes, I agreed we should keep it a secret in the beginning and I stand by that. We needed some space away from the craziness of our lives to be together and see where this was headed. But it has been seven months so maybe it is next step time."

The two had been seeing each other in clandestine ways, letting no one in on what they were doing except for Henry who didn't learn of it until they were three months in. He had taken it better than Regina expected and it was the last time that Emma had brought up the idea of "outing" their relationship.

At the time Regina had objected to the idea as she knew full well that they couldn't expect others to have the positive reaction that Henry did. Since then they hadn't discussed it but they continued to see each other every chance they could. It involved them using magical teleportation a lot.

Regina would love to be able to walk down the sidewalk holding Emma's hand or go out for family dinners but the more she thought about it the more she got worried about how people would react – especially Emma's parents.

"I will think about it," Regina said. "Right now, let's get some sleep."

Emma nodded and they resumed their comfy positions and went to sleep.

….

Emma entered Granny's for lunch and took a seat in the back. It was an intentional late lunch so that Ruby could join her for it. Still she had to wait about 10 minutes for Ruby to take her break and sit down.

"Did you get the chance to talk to Regina about that thing?"

"Yes, and she put me off of it for now," Emma said.

"Why don't you just tell her the truth?" Ruby said. "I mean this is all a little silly isn't it?"

Emma rubbed her face, feeling an ever-growing sense of frustration over all of this.

At first the whole running around behind people's backs with Regina had been fun. Finding different ways to sneak off to see each other had lent an extra enticement to everything, but now it was just exhausting. Emma hated having to teleport out of Regina's bedroom or lie about where she was it if she happened to get a call while she was with her girlfriend.

"It is silly," Emma said. "I should have told her."

"Probably, since she is going to be upset that we all happen to know about your relationship," Ruby said. "Snow in particular is finding it difficult to continue pretending she doesn't know you and Regina are involved so just tell Regina the truth."

"I know, I know," Emma said.

…..

Emma came in the front door of Regina's house and took off her jacket, hanging it up and heading toward the kitchen where she knew Regina was preparing dinner. She was supposed to have teleported in so the two of them could have a home cooked dinner.

"Hey beautiful," Emma said, wrapping her arms around Regina as she stood in front of the stove. She moved Regina's hair out of the way and gave her a kiss on her neck.

"I didn't hear you come in," Regina said. "You have progressed far from the days where you would invariably knock down some knick-knack on your entrance."

Emma let go of her and backed up. "I didn't transport in."

Regina turned toward her.

"I drove here," Emma said.

"Did you park down the street?"

"No, I parked in your driveway."

"Why did you do that? Somebody could see it or could have seen you coming in here."

"I did it because I'm your girlfriend and I shouldn't have to sneak around to come see you," Emma said. "It's like I was saying the other night – I think it's time we start having a public relationship."

"We talked about this."

"No we didn't. You told me you would think about it and that effectively cut off any discussion of it. I love you and I want people to see that," Emma said.

"I love you too," Regina said. "But are you sure this is something we're ready for. If we do this, it's going to change how people view you. People are going to question why you are with me. They're going to wonder if I put a spell on you or something."

"No they aren't," Emma said, shaking her head.

"You don't know that," Regina said. "It's one thing for the town to accept me as I am now, it's quite another thing if they think I have corrupted their Savior."

"No one is going to think that."

"How do you know?"

"Because everyone in town already knows we're dating," Emma confessed.

"What?"

"Everyone in town already knows," Emma repeated and then she had a big exhale. "We haven't been having a secret relationship, well you are the only one who didn't know that it wasn't a secret."

Regina stood there staring at Emma, her mouth partly open.

"Regina?" Emma said after a moment of silence.

"I think I need to sit down."

Regina moved passed her and Emma rushed to turn the stove off, fearing this would not be a quick conversation and then she followed Regina into the main room where she had taken a seat.

"Sorry," Emma said after more silence.

"How?"

"It started with Ruby. I ran into her one morning after I had left here. I hadn't gotten the chance to shower yet and you know wolf senses and all. I couldn't lie."

"So Ruby took it upon herself to tell everyone?"

"No, of course not. She would never tell anyone something like that."

"Then how?"

Emma bit her lip. "Please don't hate me, but I told my mother and well, she may have told some others and then it just got around. Everyone has just been pretending they didn't know."

"Your mother. Snow White. You told the one person who has a history of not being able to keep her mouth shut," Regina said. "What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that I love you. I was thinking that my mom kept pestering me about dating and so I told her that I was in a relationship already and when she asked me with who, I told her."

"What did she say when you told her?"

"She said she was happy for me, happy for us," Emma said smiling. "She didn't have any reservations about us being together. In fact she asked me when I was bringing you by for dinner. Everyone knows and no one has said a single negative word to me about it. Hell some people have even told me it was about damn time."

Regina sighed. "I still don't understand. If everyone knows why didn't you tell me before now?"

"I didn't want you to get upset," Emma said. "You mean everything to me, I hope you know that."

Got up and approached her, giving her a deep kiss. "You mean everything to me too, and I'm happy that I will get the chance to show everyone that now," Regina said, giving her another kiss. When she was done, she began to walk back to the kitchen.

"Where are you going?"

"To finish making dinner for my girlfriend," Regina said. She got to the kitchen door. "Oh, and Emma, I'm not upset that everyone knows. But you are banned from telling your mother any secrets."


End file.
